The explosive growth of urban and metropolitan centers during the nineteenth century alternately fueled and was fueled by fundamental transformations in social, cultural and industrial organization. Corresponding innovations in transportation and communication facilitated the extreme changes in the scale, complexity and tempo of modern urban life, which was marked by the successive icons of technological organization (the railroad, telegraph and telephone), social organization (the crowd, the mass, and the figures of the flâneur and flâneuse as well as the detective) and visual organization (the panorama, photograph and cinema).

Of all the icons of modernity, cinema has arguably proven to be the most comprehensive, versatile and long-lived with contemporary assessments emphasizing the importance attached to cinema and the cinematic experience (whether in positive or negative terms) by early modern critics and theorists. Our interest in this discourse is to identify the points of intersection with architectural and urban discourse, examining the fundamental interrelationship of cinema and the metropolis. More than the simple association of film sets with utopian or dystopian visions of modernity, the emphasis of this seminar will be in understanding cinematic representations as not merely presenting and documenting conditions of modernity, but in their role as centrally active agents in the construction of modern vision and, ultimately, modernity itself.

Beginning with an overview of developments in the late nineteenth century, we will concentrate on the years of 1915-1950; a period spanning the representational idioms of the early serials, expressionism, the Weimar »street« and »cross-section« films associated with the New Objectivity, early Hollywood spectaculars, neo-realism and film noir. This period witnessed important technological developments enabling the »unbound camera« (entfesselte Camera) to extend the »unbinding of vision«, interjecting itself directly into the modern urban milieu. This period also encompasses the profound change from silent films to sound, the rise and fall of the great movie palaces as sites of modern spectacle and consumption and, resulting from the political and social upheavals of 1930's Europe, the dissemination of European modes of representation to America where earlier celebrations of modernity were transformed into often harsh critiques of modernity's impact on the life of the modern metropolis and its inhabitants. We will close the semester with a reflection on the role of contemporary modes of architectural representation which, in their reliance on three-dimensional animations, increasingly parallel other forms of cinematic representation.

Readings for this seminar will be diverse and extensive and you will be expected to purchase 4-5 books that will be listed as required reading on the syllabus. Other readings will be on reserve in the library or will be sent to you as PDF files. We will also be viewing films or excerpts of films in class and these, along with a selection of other films, will also be placed on reserve for you. Grade assessments will be made on the following basis:

1) Participation in the Seminar Discussions (20%).
2) A presentation in class of your topic for the semester (30%).
3) A final paper on your semester topic (50%).

Your final paper is to be completed in a digital format as a WORD document and is to be submitted on a CD. Office hours will be posted.